1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to incinerators. More particularly, this invention pertains to air-curtain incinerators for burning explosive or energetic materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Conventional methods of disposing of contaminated waste, obsolete, or otherwise unwanted energetic materials, such as explosives and propellants, are open-field burning or detonation. These methods are not unacceptable from the standpoint of air quality control.
The air-curtain incinerator offers the possibility of reducing objectionable air-pollutants while maintaining the desirable features of safety and low-cost which open-field burning has provided. However, the conventional air-curtain incinerator is designed for the destruction of conventional wastes such as logging slash, tree stumps, construction debris, or combustible municiple wastes. For such wastes, the incinerator is normally operated in a continuous or semi-continuous fashion with the material periodically loaded into the hot incinerator. For these operations the conventional air-curtain incinerator provides a constant air flow directed into the flame at a fixed angle. Although adequate for conventional combustibles, the conventional air-curtain incinerator lacks the flexibility that research has shown to be desirable for destroying energetic materials on a batch basis. Research has revealed that in order to achieve optimum control of emissions, provision for variation of the volume of air flow and of the direction of air flow into the fire box of the incinerator is necessary. In view of the potential hazards associated with the incineration of energetic materials, control of the air flow and air angle should be accomplished using remote control devices.